SkillInside

And four things they do to make themselves even tougher. I don't think mental toughness is something you are born with, and I strongly believe it's something we can all learn along the journey. After studying many examples of successful people and top performers, here are the 10 traits people with high mental toughness have in common. Delayed gratification.  Most people fail because they give in to temptations or give up to challenges too quickly. Mentally strong people understand how to work hard and contribute more now before they even think about returns. Psychologist Walter Mischel proved the ability of delayed gratification contributes to one's success later in life in his  marshmallow experiment  held in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Embrace constraints.  We want to believe we have total freedom, and we think more freedom makes us better off.  The truth is the opposite . When some people naively want to have all the freedom, happy people em...

We’ve warmed up, we’ve worked on improving existing skills, now we want to tackle new ones. Learning a new skill is an exhilarating, fun and rewarding experience. One we’d like to have as often as possible. It’s essentially crack. What’s the best way to be able to learn new material consistently and safely? The first is to have a strong, refined foundation. Boring, but true. The second is to work with a knowledgeable coach or expert regularly. The value of a high quality coaching cannot be overstated. Thirdly, you can employ visualization techniques to help speed the learning process along. Lastly, having a solid understanding of the learning process, the steps you have to go through and what you have to do at each step to move forward will help you take control of your learning experience.  GORDON BOMBAY: THE REASON THE MIGHTY DUCKS DIDN’T MIGHTY SUCK Before Gordon Bombay was sentenced to community service the Mighty Ducks were just some kids playing ice hockey on a po...

When Thomas Kuhn said “the answers you get depend on the questions you ask,” he was definitely onto something. Gaining an understanding of the specific types of questions you ask not only helps you achieve better answers and build stronger relationships, but it’ll also help you avoid misleading people, or worse, prevent you from suffering a dreaded communication breakdown. Let’s start with everyday types of questions people ask, and the answers they’re likely to elicit. Closed questions (aka the ‘Polar’ question) Closed, or ‘polar’ questions generally invite a one-word answer, such as ‘yes’ or ‘no’. For example, ‘do you drive?’ or, ‘did you take my pen?’ They could also include answers to factual or multiple choice questions, such as ‘what’s your name’, or ‘would you like tea, coffee, or water?’ They’re popular as icebreaker questions in group situations because they’re easy to answer. Of course, most questions can be opened up for further discussion, including closed...